Queen Delial Harlaw
"If we were to fall - if ''order were to fall, my love - then Naturelles will burn with it. We are her face and her voice. We must persevere no matter the cost."'' Born Delial Ebene from an estate in the Naturellean countryside, she was betrothed to and wed Edric Harlaw and would become the first queen of the Harlaw dynasty. Background Matched at a young age to be wed to King Altorance's last heir, Delial spent much of her young life preparing for her inevitable rise to power. She proved to be generally popular amongst the people, who saw her as a suitably strong woman to stand at the side of the Iron King. The love the two shared was well known, as was their near perfect symmetry: where her husband was the iron fist of justice, Delial was the blade of mercy, sharp and keen with the potential to be much more vicious than she seems. Together they had two children, Prince Edric Harlaw II and Princess Delial Harlaw II. Overture 2 During her reign, Queen Delial most often took the place of her husband's advisor particularly on matters requiring a more diplomatic touch. Having taken a more active interest in matters of legislature and philosphy, she was more than eager to even serve in the King's stead when he was occupied with more pressing matters. Their reign remained largely untroubled until the Man With No Name came to Naturelles with whispers of rebellion and treachery. With talk of revolt and a sudden increase of violence within the kingdom, King Harlaw became suspect to notions that his rule was not as solid as he had thought. Delial found herself more and more involved with debates and discussions and long nights with the King steadily losing his hold on the situation. One notable breaking point came when rumors of infidelity fell upon King Harlaw's ears. A man called Crusader Abaet, a scholarly fellow representing the religious order of his homeland, had recently arrived in Naturelles and was soon brutally and near fatally burned on his face by Lance the Wrathful. Delial took an uncharacteristically generous tone towards the Crusader and offered him sanctuary within the castle itself. Edric would later confront his wife about the rumors only have his concerns coldly dismissed. Nothing was ever proven with regards to Delial's alleged affair but the damage was done. His beloved wife became distant and abraisive, and her beloved husband seemed daunted by the growing vacuum between his word and the law. It had been a long-standing assumption that hers was the will that truly guided the kingdom and Delial saw fit to ensure that the crown would stay strong in face of the ever growing threat of revolt. She turned to Lance the Wrathful, one of the Seven Sinners, and set him loose on the city in hopes of quashing the revolt by killing its leaders as swiftly and brutally as possible. Taking her ambitions further, she attempted to goad Lance into imprisoning the King so that she may claim the power for herself. However, Lance turned out to be much too unstable for her to control and her coup was cut short. Delial Harlaw was sentenced to die for treason and was executed without regrets for her actions. Legacy Queen Delial's treachery was speculated to be part of the reason behind Edric II's early disdain for the fairer sex, causing him to go as far as publish a widely circulated book on the "proper behavior of women". Since her execution, women in power were suddenly seen as threats and the reach of their powers was put under close scrutiny.